Families shattered over arrest (Azmath illegal in US 9 years- John Doe2?)

HYDERABAD: "My son can never do such a thing," Mohammed Jahangir, father of Mohammed Jaweed Azmath, said late on Monday night.

The family is shattered over the news of Azmath's arrest as one of the suspects in Tuesday's terrorist attacks in the US. It was only after seeing Azmath's picture on TV networks as one of the two arrested suspects in the attacks that the gravity of the situation dawned on them. Jahangir and the rest of the family, including Azmath's wife,who is expecting a baby, confirmed Azmath's identity as one of the two arrested men after being shown their photographs.

Jahangir told The Times of India that Azmath, as well as Ayub Ali Khan, both friends, working in a store in New Jersey, were moving out of New Jersey to Texas after having lost their jobs. The shattered father said Azmath and Khan were promised all help by a man called Sethi from Mumbai to set up a fruit store in Texas and that was the reason why the duo was on their way to Texas.

Jahangir said the duo was in the US for the last nine years. "This nice house is thanks to the hardwork my son has put in the US.He can never be part of any such terrorist attack," Jahangir said.

Meanwhile, Ayub Ali Khan's family also confirmed that he was one of the two men detained in the US.They said that Khan and Azmath had come back from the US to Hyderabad in January and left in July back to the US. The two had first gone to the US as illegal immigrants nine years ago. Asked how they managed to come back to India without valid papers, Ayub's family said, "This could only be answered by Immigration officials." They had no knowledge about the box cutters or knives that the duo was alleged to have been carrying when arrested.

Ayub, his family said, was a trained chartered accountant, who worked in Sahara here as a clerk. The duo called their families here a week before they moved from New Jersey to Texas.

Yikes!! It's HIM!!

Not necessarily. Remember that Jose Padilla/ Abdullah al Muhajir was apprehended at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, then consider the arrest of Nabil Al-Marabh seven days after the 09/11 bombing....

Nabil Al-Marabh, 34

Status: In custody in New York

Al-Marabh, who listed addresss in Massachussetts, Illinois and Canada since 1994, was arrested Sept. 19 at a Burbank, Ill., convenience store. Al-Marabh once worked for Boston Cab Co., where an associate of suspected terror chief Osama bin Laden also worked.

Nabil Al-Marabh

The FBI linked Al-Marabh to Raed Hijazi, now jailed in Jordan on charges that he planned to blow up a hotel filled with Americans and Israelis on New Year's Day 2000.

Al-Marabh holds a commercial driver's license and is certified to transport hazardous materials. Canadian media reported that a man with the same name and age lived in Toronto in the mid-1990s and was collecting welfare while waiting word on his refugee application; it was denied. Authorities will not say why they were seeking Al-Marabh

more info *here*

-archy-/-

I'm glad you brought up this topic again. It got me to check into what has happened with our two friends, more recently.

2 detained men indicted for credit card fraud

NEW YORK : Two Indian-American men arrested from an Amtrak train in Texas a day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. have pleaded innocent to credit card fraud charges. Syed Gul Mohammed Shah (earlier identified as Ayub Ali Khan) and Mohammed Azmath entered their pleas in two separate proceedings before federal judges in Manhattan on Jan. 16. Both had been indicted on the federal charges a day earlier.
The two were indicted on credit card fraud charges after unidentified investigators were quoted as saying in news reports recently that they did not believe Shah and Azmath were in any way linked to the terror attacks.
The two men had left Newark, New Jersey, for San Antonio by plane on the day of the attacks, but were stranded in St. Louis after all flights across the United States were grounded following the terrorist strikes.
The two then boarded an Amtrak train and were in Texas when they were apprehended by authorities, who found two box cutters, hair dye, a knife and thousands of dollars on them.
The two were held and interrogated closely because box cutters were believed to have been used as weapons by the terrorists who hijacked four aircraft on Sept. 11. Two were crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, one into the Pentagon in Washington, while the last plane, apparently headed for the White House, crashed in Pennsylvania, after passengers grappled with the terrorists.
Lawrence Feitell, the lawyer representing Shah, was quoted as saying by news reports that it was not unusual for his client to carry a box cutter as he worked at a newsstand, “where the blades are used to open boxes and bundles of newspapers.”
The lawyer also expressed the hope that Shah would be let off lightly as “the case was now on a different track, unrelated to terrorism.” Shah is accused of selling some 15 credits cards for about $1,000 apiece, which were used to withdraw cash or buy goods worth an estimated $414,000. According to his lawyer, Shah is likely to face up to two years in jail if convicted. Azmath, on the other hand, is likely to face less than six months in prison, if convicted. He has been accused of stealing less than $15,000.

I wonder if they have served (or are serving) time.

This is an old article, but I just came across it for the first time.

Red faces over suspects’ Indian passports
Swati Chaturvedi
(New Delhi, September 17)

An "Indian connection" with the bombing of the World Trade Center wasn't something that the Indian government had bargained for.
Having watched with glee the heat being applied on Pakistan, it's now the turn of the Indian government to squirm. For it turns out that two of the suspects caught in the US are believed to have Indian passports. With the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) asking the authorities here to come up with more information on the two, there are red faces in the Home Ministry.
The two suspects have identified themselves as Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Javeed Azmath and claim to be from India. Both are in their early 50s.
The FBI has told the Indian Government that the duo had "fake-looking passports”. This scenario is similar to the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 where four of the hijackers had procured passports through touts. Ostensibly, the system had been overhauled and new checks introduced. However, as the latest case proves, it is still relatively easy to fool the system.
Says a senior official at the Research and Analysis Wing: "If this turns out to be a case of security lapse, we will really have egg on our face after all our pious pronouncements on terrorism.” What officials really fear is that the two could be Arabs or Pakistanis who took advantage of the touts to get passports. It's almost a replay of Kandahar as the suspects there had also managed to get passports issued using fake names very easily.
At that point the Home Ministry had debated how to make the system foolproof. Sources say while the situation has improved in Delhi, other passport offices continue to be plagued by touts.
Fake Indians?
* Ayub Ali Khan and Mohammed Azmath picked up from Amtrak train
* Caught with box cutters, hair dye and $5,000
* Claim to be from Gorakhpur and Bangalore
* They could be Arabs or Pakistanis who got passports through touts
* Theirs and Kandahar hijackers’ case could stamp India as a haven for fake passport seekers

Tuesday, May 7, 2002
Families in India anxious for release of two men detained in United States after Sept. 11 attack

By OMER FAROOQ Associated Press Writer
HYDERABAD, India (AP) - Almost eight months after two Indian Muslims were detained in Texas for questioning about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, their families still don't know when they'll be home, though both have long since been cleared of involvement.
The two remain in custody in the United States on unrelated charges of credit card fraud that prosecutors said surfaced during a background investigation. Pretrial hearings in the case, in which both men have pleaded innocent, are scheduled to begin this month in a U.S. federal court in New York.
The wait has been agonizing for the families of Gul Mohammed Shah, 36, and Mohammed Jawed Azmath, 38, who knew nothing about the credit card charges until January.
"We are in a total despair. Eight months is not a short period," Gul Begum, Shah's 75-year-old mother, told The Associated Press.
Syeda Fatima, Shah's sister, said that she had written letters to U.S. and Indian authorities including U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and the National Human Rights Commission in New Delhi - none of which have been answered.
The two men were taken off a train at Fort Worth, Texas, when police found them carrying boxcutters, several thousand dollars in cash and hair dye. The hijackers of the airliners that smashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are believed to have used boxcutters.
On the day of the attacks, Azmath and Khan were on a flight from New Jersey to Texas but boarded the train when the flight was diverted to Missouri.
The two told authorities that the tools were for their work at a newsstand in New Jersey and that they were heading for Texas to find new jobs.
They were cleared of suspicion in the hijackings in January but kept in custody on charges of credit card fraud.
Shah is accused of selling 10 to 15 credit cards for about dlrs 1,000 each to other parties, who then used the cards to obtain cash or buy goods and services estimated at dlrs 414,000. He likely would face up to two years behind bars if convicted.
Azmath, if convicted, would likely face less than six months in prison because he was accused of stealing less than dlrs 15,000 through credit card fraud.
The dates for their pretrial hearing in a Manhattan federal court have been set for May 10 and May 17.
"We all will be looking forward to the hearing and pray for a positive outcome," said Tasleema, Azmath's wife.
Time may be running out for Tasleema, a 22-year-old Pakistani.
Her visa expires on May 29 and local police have asked her to leave India. She would likely be able to extend her visa if her husband were here with her.
"I have pleaded my case before police and told them that my husband is under arrest in New York," she said. "The officials have promised to help."
She gave birth to a son in December while her husband was in custody.

Thursday, June 6, 2002
Man arrested Sept. 12 with box cutters pleads guilty to fraud
By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - One of two men arrested with box cutters a day after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks pleaded guilty Thursday to credit card fraud charges.
Mohammed Azmath, 37, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 17 and could face eight to 14 months in prison.
Lawyer Anthony Ricco said his client might qualify for sentencing as soon as July under a special program set up to quickly process Sept. 11 detainees who admit crimes unrelated to terrorism.
Prosecutors said Azmath sold personal information to someone who obtained credit cards in his name, purchasing $58,747 in services and merchandise. Ricco said his client received only several hundred dollars for his part in the conspiracy.
Ricco said he suspected Azmath will be deported to India rather than serve the sentence because he entered the country illegally in 1999.
"He would like to stay, but he's very happy to go home," Ricco said of his client, who has a wife in Hyderabad, India.
Azmath and Syed Gul Mohammed Shah, 36, boarded a plane in Newark, N.J., on Sept. 11 to go to San Antonio. They were stranded in St. Louis when their plane was grounded along with all other air traffic after the terrorist attacks.
The men then got on an Amtrak train to Texas, where they were arrested after authorities found two box cutters, hair dye, a knife and several thousand dollars among their belongings.
Ricco said his client was not allowed to see a lawyer for three months and had been subjected to harsh treatment, including having his toe broken by a jail guard.
"He's been roughed up, cursed at, locked outside in the rain for five hours several times," Ricco said.
An associate warden at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Azmath has been held, did not return a telephone message Thursday.
Azmath and Shah were initial suspects in the sprawling terrorism probe, especially when it was learned that men who hijacked four planes on Sept. 11 used box cutters to overpower flight crews.
Later, investigators concluded the men were not linked to terrorism.
Shah has pleaded innocent to similar fraud charges.

I believe, truth being known, he was in the states illegally in 95 too

I agree with you. Even both men's families admit their sons were here 9 years ago.

The family of Gul Mohammed Shah [aka Ayub Khan] even admits the two men were here illegally back then.

(From post 47) Shah is accused of selling 10 to 15 credit cards for about dlrs 1,000 each to other parties, who then used the cards to obtain cash or buy goods and services estimated at dlrs 414,000.

I wonder what names were on those credit cards.

Both the men seem pretty good at fakery and fraud. I bet it wouldn't be too hard for them to help a lot of illegals obtain more than mere credit cards. Also, it could be that the people who bought the credit cards also used the cards as aids in assuming false identities.

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